Hand from the Norwegian team trials

[jdeegan]

:P Teams. IMP's. Playing 2/1. The match is about at midpoint and close. They are vul, we are not. LHO passes. Partner opens 1♠. RHO doubles. You hold:

 

♠ K9762

♥ Q9

♦ 8452

♣ 42

 

What do you do?

[Fluffy]

I think in Norway they get away your license if you bid something less agressive than 4♠

 

All vul or unfavourable I´d bid 3♠ only, nobody vul I don´t know, but here its 4♠

 

EDIT: If I was "operating" I´d bid 2♥

[jdeegan]

:P If there were ever a hand that was safe to operate with, this was it. You are always willing to end in 4♠ if things get messy.

♠ K9xxx

♥ Q9

♦ 8xxx

♣ xx

Your hand is really not that good for offense - no stiff or void - the deadly ♥ Q, worthless on offense, but a possible defensive trick. Unless pard has extras, the opps may have a game. I think it is time to get creative.

 

At the table, the Norwegian bid an unimaginative 4♠. His LHO, who was a passed hand, held:

 

♠10xx

♥Axxx

♦ x

♣ A98xx

 

Playing his partner for a ♠ void, he/she bid 4NT showing two places to play and a really good (but limited by the original pass) hand. The next hand passed, and the original doubler was looking at:

 

♠ void

♥ Kxxx

♦ KQJ9

♣ KQ10xx

 

He/she jumped to six clubs - all pass - making six.

 

Blasting with 3 or 4♠ may work against the typical duplicate field, but this was the Norwegian national team trials.

[gszes]

i prefer my operations to not overly lie about my

overall strength since p will rarely be in on the

joke (what is 6c x making?)

 

i chose 1n since it doenst lie about power. If p has extra

values nothing can go wrong. If p is min then we have a ton

less defense than normal and we have to hope the opps misjudge

how high they need to go.

 

4s might work if you are going to jump maybe 5s is better but

is is still a guess and may be preemting p (same with 4s) vs

the opps. With any luck the 1n bid might cause some concern

among the opps about their p having wasted spade values.

 

i am curious though if p cannot x 6c why didnt we bid 6s? we have

zero defense surely we can score 7 tricks on offense (hmmm I wonder

if driving them to 7 is a good idea :)))))))))))))))))))))))

 

Welcome to no limit holdem i mean bridge.

[han]

Blasting with 3 or 4♠ may work against the typical duplicate field, but this was the Norwegian national team trials.

 

You might just as easily say "Operating with 2♠ may work against the typical duplicate field, but this was the Norwegian national team trials."

 

The better the opponents, the better they will be able to use the room that you are giving them.

[nige1]

:P Teams. IMP's. Playing 2/1. The match is about at midpoint and close. They are vul, we are not. You hold: ♠ K9762 ♥ Q9 ♦ 8452 ♣ 42

LHO passes. Partner opens 1♠. RHO doubles. What do you do?

IMO 4♠ = 10, 1N = 9, Pass = 8, 2♥ = 7, 3♠ = 6, 2♠ = 5. I admire gszes' 1N :)

[ggwhiz]

I actually have a possible bid for this, an impossible 3nt.

 

It is revealed as such after somebody doubles and I run and says I want to sac at a higher level but only if you do too as we may go for too many.

 

Not at all clear what would happen next but they might park it in game or pard might take the dive in 6♠.

 

We usually only trot this out over something like 3♣ - double where 3nt doesn't lose any preemptive value in a hand where they are going to bid 4 of a major and 5♣ may be way too high.

[Cyberyeti]

Only 2 bids come to mind, 4♠ and redouble (I had 7 to the 10 and a 4 count last time I tried this, and it went 1♠-X-XX-P-P and got pulled after a 5 minute tank, so I bid 4♠ for +590).

 

In this case it may be difficult to diagnose this and I wouldn't be surprised if they subsided in 4♥ or 5♣.

[jvage]

I played in this tournament (it was the Norwegian teams finals, not team trials) and here I agreed 100% with partners 4♠. The opponents (the eventual winners, but we won this match) then played in 5♣. The original doubler did not jump over his partners 4NT, which my teammates did to bid the making slam.

 

Interestingly I also had almost an identical hand in the same tournament (Kxxxx, xxx, Qx, xxx) after partners 1♠ opening and a takeout double. I jumped to 4♠ and this time we won the board because next-hand opponent bid 5♥ instead of a "2 places to play 4NT". In practice they had 10 tricks in their 4-4 heartfit and 11 in their 5-5 diamondfit (without a double-dummy underlead of AQJxxx of spades which would enable us to avoid a later endplay).

 

Edit: I would be on lead against 5 diamonds and after a relatively natural lead of the spade K I should find the club-shift, so 4NT may not have improved the score.

 

In our Premier Leauge earlier this year (also against the winners of the team finals) the bidding also startet the same way (pass - 1♠ - Double), but then my hand was much stronger (A98xx, Q9xx, Txx, Q). I probably was a bit to strong for my choice (also 4♠), but we still managed to bid to our laydown slam (when given the chance I naturally raised partners invitational 5♠ to 6).

 

This weekend I also held Qxx, T87xx, xxx, AJ and heard partner open a five+ heart (all vul). This hand is is very different in texture and there was no double, so I only bid a constructive raise. Next hand bid 2♠ and opponents eventually finished in 4♠ down one (makeable on a very doubledummy line), while we had only 7-8 tricks in hearts.

 

John

[nige1]

I actually have a possible bid for this, an impossible 3nt. It is revealed as such after somebody doubles and I run and says I want to sac at a higher level but only if you do too as we may go for too many. Not at all clear what would happen next but they might park it in game or pard might take the dive in 6♠. We usually only trot this out over something like 3♣ - double where 3nt doesn't lose any preemptive value in a hand where they are going to bid 4 of a major and 5♣ may be way too high.

IMO, you should disclose this to opponents. After a third-in-hand minor pre-empt, Andrew Robson also suggests a simlar conventional 3N reply (rules- permitting). It shows a hand that is full value for a five-level sacrifice, provided partner has his bid. It's a kind of psych-control (like Drury), in case partner is messing around.

[ggwhiz]

IMO, you should disclose this to opponents. After a third-in-hand minor pre-empt, Andrew Robson also suggests a simlar conventional 3N reply (rules- permitting). It shows a hand that is full value for a five-level sacrifice, provided partner has his bid. It's a kind of psych-control (like Drury), in case partner is messing around.

 

We do alert this as the 3nt bid after a takeout double is a bit of a red flag. We say it is either to play or inviting a higher level sac with reservations (rare or not) and depending on the colours our opps have always taken the correct inference.

 

It's a rare bid and most commonly happens in response to a 3rd seat pre-empt that gets doubled where the intent is very clear.